Do Women Make Better Investors Than Men?
MIAMI (CBS4) - Who do you think are better investors - men or women? A financial expert did his own unscientific poll to find out.
Beth Frazier, from a women's investment club, always had a hunch that women make better investors than men.
"We don't have as much time to trade. So we tend to leave our money in there and it grows over time," said Frazier.
Because women trade less, that means big savings on transaction fees.
"Men are more prone to over confidence than women so they tend to trade more aggressively as a result of that," added Frazier.
Economics professor Brad Barber has studied the trading habits of men and women. Among the 35 thousand households he surveyed, Barber says over-confidence led men to trade 45-percent more often, while women tended to stay the course.
"Women are more likely to reflect on the information than men are, and are therefore less likely to act on it in a spontaneous way," said Barber.
Researchers at Stanford are trying to determine whether women react differently because of biological or cultural reasons. Whatever the reason, we call all learn from the women surveyed by following 3 simple rules.
- Trade less often. More trades means lower returns.
- "Hot" investments are harmful. Don't react to today's buzz. Ignore short-term market movements and only re-balance your diversified portfolio annually, bi-annually or quarterly.
- Keep it simple. As a general rule of thumb, the more complex a portfolio, the lower the return.
These are easy strategies that Beth and her fellow investors always follow.
So although women may be better investors than men, they also face bigger obstacles in saving for retirement because they earn less which reduces their contributions to social security. Seeking the help of a certified financial planner might be worth the future returns.
